Shortly after the kangaroo hunt there come to the kampong two Chinese, with a party of Moresby boys, who are making their way to the coast and Merauke, where they can dispose of the skins of the birds of paradise they have taken. The Chinese are of the typical trader class and appear prosperous, for their watch-chains are very heavy and of pure gold,—not the red gold we know, but the twenty-two-karat metal of the Orient.

Their advent causes a stir in the kampong, for the moment the dogs give warning of the approach of strangers the natives all dive into the shacks, to peer furtively through the crevices until assured the visitors mean them no harm. The Chinese enter the kampong boldly and, espying our camp, come to greet us immediately; and 168as the Chinaman is always hail fellow well met, we invite the men in and give them a cup of tea. Moh is most happy to serve them and beams upon them as he passes the tea.

They seem much surprised to find two white men here and question us regarding the purpose of our visit, thinking at first, doubtless, that we are on the same errand as they. They cannot comprehend how we two Americans can find recreation and amusement in coming to this Godforsaken spot, putting up with untold hardship and inconvenience merely to meet and study the lives of the Kia Kia savages. The Chinese is first, last, and always a business man and bends all his energies toward succeeding in his business. The Moresby boys immediately take up their abode with Ula and the crew of the Nautilus, who are camped near the kampong, and we make the Chinese comfortable in a spare tent, where they spread their mats and prepare to stay a day or two to rest.

They have been successful in their hunting and have nearly sixty codies, or twelve hundred of 169the skins, though they have been in the interior only since last May. The skins, well preserved in arsenic, are done up in parcels. There is a small fortune in the proceeds of their season’s hunting and they are most happy at their success, though they of course do not boast of it. It is not the Chinaman’s way to wax exuberant over anything. Win or lose, his face never changes expression.

In the course of the evening our visitors tell us in perfect Malay—they speak only a word or two of English—of the manner of hunting their beautiful quarry. The habits of the birds are most interesting. They also tell us something which is news to us. We had supposed that the restrictions placed upon the importation of the skins into America were due to the possibility of the species becoming extinct, but the hunters tell us that this is not the case. They say that only the male birds in full plumage are taken and that the bird never attains his fullest plumage until after the seco............